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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A little Greek puzzle

I don't read Greek, but a couple of hundred people have followed the suggestion from Abram K-J that we read Isaiah in the LXX. Am I ready finally to learn a little Greek? I have a dozen books around the house that have sat for 50 years waiting for me to pick them up. Well, I'm in - and I will listen. At about 5 verses a day, perhaps I will get the hang of it sometime over the next 6 months.

In the meanwhile I thought about putting together one of my usual pictures of Isaiah 6:1-5. In this I am ahead of the group. But I will go back, having done the first five verses and catch up a bit - at least at a conceptual level. This is the origin of the Sanctus of the Ordinary of the Mass. The music of verse 3 is like this:

And here are the words that repeat in Isaiah 6:1-5, following my usual strategy of spotting similar sounds in the Hebrew - but this time the Greek is in the gloss. I have to say this was very difficult to do for a blind and deaf person. But the coherence and framing of these five verses is nevertheless obvious based on the words that repeat.

If anyone sees this - can you tell me if I got the interlinear sort of right? It was hilarious trying to get glosses out of Google translate. It is difficult enough doing a manual interlinear in English! What is this δυσὶν?

Anyway - I now have these five verses in a database where I can manipulate them somewhat (in raw form since my psalms software is somewhat specific to psalms... mea culpa).

Incidentally - I am doing the online reading with the polyglot Bible. I can't read the Greek yet - but I am OK with the Hebrew and Latin and I can frequently guess the Greek. This link has an easy to use dictionary - but it doesn't define δυσὶν either.

Selected recurring words (1 to 5)

Word and gloss * first usage

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

2

3

4

5

6

Vs

Root

המלך ὁ βασιλεύς

░

1

מלך

ואראה εἶδον

░

1

ראה

ישׁב καθήμενον

░

1

ישׁב

מלאים καὶ πλήρης

░

1

מלא

שׁשׁ ἓξ

░

2

שׁשׁ

כנפים πτέρυγες

░

2

כנף

שׁשׁ ἓξ

░

2

שׁשׁ

כנפים πτέρυγες

░

2

כנף

בשׁתים καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυσὶν

░

2

שׁנים

יכסה κατεκάλυπτον

░

2

כסה

ובשׁתים καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν

░

2

שׁנים

יכסה δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον

░

2

כסה

ובשׁתים καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν

░

2

שׁנים

וקרא καὶ ἐκέκραγον

░

3

קרא

זה ἕτερος

░

3

זה

זה ἕτερον

░

3

זה

ואמר καὶ ἔλεγον

░

3

אמר

קדושׁ ἅγιος

░

3

קדשׁ

קדושׁ ἅγιος

░

3

קדשׁ

קדושׁ ἅγιος

░

3

קדשׁ

צבאות σαβαωθ

░

3

צבא

מלא πλήρης

░

3

מלא

הקורא ἧς ἐκέκραγον

░

4

קרא

ימלא ἐπλήσθη

░

4

מלא

ואמר καὶ εἶπα

░

5

אמר

טמא ὢν καὶ ἀκάθαρτα

░

5

טמא

שׂפתים χείλη

░

5

שׂפה

אנכי ἔχων

░

5

אנכי

טמא ἀκάθαρτα

░

5

טמא

שׂפתים χείλη

░

5

שׂפה

אנכי ἐγὼ

░

5

אנכי

יושׁב ἔχοντος

░

5

ישׁב

המלך βασιλέα

░

5

מלך

צבאות σαβαωθ

░

5

צבא

ראו εἶδον

░

5

ראה

The meaning of the holy - what is that - and why is this passage here?